Japan’s parliament is set to pass a resolution expressing concern about Uyghur human rights as early as Tuesday, in a move likely to irritate China days before the Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony.
The resolution, watered down during months of debate among ruling and opposition parties, is a sign of Tokyo’s struggle to balance ties between its ally the U.S. and its biggest trading partner, China. Nevertheless, its passage just ahead of the Olympics and in a year that marks the 50th anniversary of bilateral ties indicates determination among many lawmakers to hold Beijing to account for suspected human rights abuses.
“It’s an enormous first step,” Yasue Funayama, an opposition lawmaker and co-chair of one of the parliamentary human rights groups leading the effort, said of the resolution in an interview in Tokyo on Thursday. “If the whole of parliament agrees that there are concerns about the human rights situation, we will have to look at what to do about it.”
Long reluctant to take a public stance on human rights, Japan has adopted a harder line since Beijing’s clampdown in Hong Kong in 2020, chilling already difficult relations between the neighbors. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last year created a new position of human rights adviser to the premier.
Last month, the Japanese government announced it would send Olympic and Paralympic officials to the Beijing Games, but no cabinet ministers, keeping largely in line with the U.S. diplomatic boycott of the event.
Beijing, which had warned boycotting countries they would “pay a price for their wrong moves,” did not fire any rhetorical barbs at its neighbor. Tokyo’s dispatch of high-profile sports figures seemed to have struck a delicate balance of neither offending Washington, nor Beijing, which said it welcomed the participation of the delegation.
Funayama hopes the parliamentary resolution will spark momentum to pass a law requiring companies to conduct due diligence on human rights. A survey conducted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry last year gained responses from only about a quarter of 2,786 companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange first and second sections. Of these, just over half said they conducted such checks on their supply chains.
Wrangling among ruling and opposition parties has softened the wording of a resolution that was initially proposed last year. The latest version seen by Bloomberg refers to the human rights “situation,” rather than “violations” as in a previous draft. The word “condemnation” has also been deleted from the title and there is no direct mention of China.
That contrasts with a French parliamentary resolution earlier this month that labeled Chinese activities in Xinjiang “genocide” and was criticized by China’s foreign ministry. The U.K. and Canadian parliaments passed similar resolutions last year, while the U.S. State Department has defined China’s treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang as genocide.
China regularly hits back at the genocide accusations leveled by the U.S. government and others, calling them “the lie of the century.”
Last year the U.S. customs agency blocked a shipment of Japanese giant Fast Retailing Co.’s Uniqlo shirts for violating an order prohibiting imports of items suspected to be produced by forced labor in Xinjiang.
Kishida’s Buddhist-backed ruling coalition partner Komeito has historic ties with China, and may be reluctant to condemn Japan’s neighbor in harsh terms. Lawmakers from other parties have expressed dissatisfaction with the toned-down version of the document.
Funayama’s co-chair at the human rights group, Ken Saito, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, told Bloomberg that other countries reliant on trade with China had taken action. If nothing is done, he said “Japan will look like the only one ignoring human rights so as to make money.”
